Getting Over Carter
by enzosprite
Summary: Trying to read Jack O'Neill was like trying to read Ancient. Unless you were Daniel Jackson, you just couldn't. Season 8. Jack/Daniel Friendship. Sam/Jack.
1. Start As You Mean To Go On

**I wrote this awhile back, and found it BETAED in my shared Google Docs. How industrious of my beta! **

**Still working on PD20; Don't worry this has several chapters written already, so won't be interfering with my WIP. **

**Please let me know what you think, since this is one of my early SG-1 fics. I wrote this after originally abandoning PD - It was when Season 8 first aired and I was so disgusted by Sam's acceptance of Pete's ring, that this came about. **

* * *

**Prologue**

She'd been distraught when he'd knocked at her door looking so much like the man she was mourning that it didn't matter in her mind that he wasn't.

It was easy to take advantage of the situation, his pity for her made him less resistant to her advances. She'd known what she was doing was wrong, that it would make it difficult for him to work with Captain Carter, but she couldn't summon the energy to care at the time. Her heart had been breaking every night that she'd spent going to bed without her husband and she hoped for just one night to feel whole again.

He hadn't stayed the night of course. He'd left her afterwards, looking guilty and confused. She knew he was thinking of Captain Carter and what it all meant for all of them.

She too felt guilty, but the feeling of being with him had over ridden everything else. Then things started to happen quickly and before she knew it she was back home and losing him once again, or as he had gently reminded her, the first time.

Once things had settled down a bit, her determination to fix things and put everything back into place had dulled the ever present pain she felt. He was gone and was never coming back. They, she, had a lot to do and it would take literally years to accomplish all they had planned. She was needed and she had to step up. Her husband would've wanted it that way. He had been a survivor and she was going to survive for him. She smiled. For them.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**_Orilla, New Asgard Homeworld_**

The recently defrosted Colonel Jack O'Neill opened his eyes and found himself waking up for the second time in unfamiliar surroundings. _I really shouldn't make a habit of this_, he thought to himself.

"Jack, you okay?"

"Daniel."

"Um, yeah. How do you feel?" Daniel squinted at him.

He frowned up at his friend and thought of a suitable answer. He figured straightforward honesty was best. "Well, actually, I feel pretty good. Better, even. I haven't felt this good in... Ever."

Daniel cleared his throat. "Hmm. That's good, Jack, that's very good."

His eyes narrowed at Daniel's rather shifty attitude. "Is there something you'd like to tell me, Daniel? Like maybe what happened this time and why for the second time I've found myself waking up to you?"

Daniel frowned. "You don't remember? Thor said you'd remember everything."

He'd had enough. This was getting ridiculous, he needed answers and he needed them now.

"Help me up," he said extending his hand. Daniel grasped his forearm in assistance.

He felt slightly disorientated, blood rapidly rushing to his head, black spots circling in his vision. He closed his eyes to dispel the image. Opening his eyes once again, he was able to finally take in the room he was in.

"What the hell are we still doing in Orilla?"

Daniel cleared his throat before answering. "You collapsed."

He shook his head as if trying to shake the memory back into place.

"Well, to be more precise, you died."

He paused, his hand in mid-scratch at the back of his head. "_Come again_?"

"You died, Jack. Thor beamed us back to his ship and then you collapsed."

"Oy!"

"Yeah, another one of those days."

"So," he said jumping off the surface that the Asgard used as a bed and took a better look around the room. One side of the room was covered in glass that he guessed was of the same construction as that used in Asgard ships. Beyond and far below them lay a carpet of trees. A forest, really. It seemed that the grey aliens, like the other members of the four advanced races, had a thing for the green stuff. "More trees, huh. Same old, same old."

Daniel smirked at him. Smirked. "Not quite, Jack. Not quite." The younger man gestured at something beyond the room and he followed with his eyes.

A bathroom.

"That bad?" He asked, remembering a similar incident after, ironically, the Asgard had dropped them off on a planet after saving the aliens' collective asses from the Replicators the first time. He gave himself a little sniff.

Daniel gave an exasperated sigh. "Just go in the bathroom."

"Alright," he shrugged and sauntered into the lavatory. The lights came on immediately once he crossed the threshold and revealed utilitarian looking facilities. Sink, toilet, shower. All brand new and unused, he figured. The Asgard were actually thinking of human creature comforts. He turned back to Daniel. "Yeah, so what?"

Daniel pointed behind him. He muttered something under his breath, getting tired of this cryptic crap. "Why don't you just-" he suddenly stopped mid-sentence and stared at his reflection in the mirror. Holy Buckets! "Oh, for crying out loud! What the hell did they do to me?"

"Jack-"

"No!" he stopped Daniel with a pointed finger. "When a person dies, you resuscitate them; you do not perform plastic surgery and pump them with that Bollox -

"Botox!"

"-stuff." He finished. He turned around again and looked himself over in the mirror. He looked... strange. Almost shiny from being 'new'.

Daniel interrupted Jack's self assessment. "They didn't pump you with any toxin or perform surgery on you. What would be the point? Anyway, the - the Asgard had more pressing concerns than making cosmetic changes, they were too busy trying to save your life."

"Then explain this!" He pointed at his face angrily.

"They cloned you!"

He gaped at Daniel, flabbergasted at his explanation. "Run that by me again?"

"Well-"

"The abbreviated version," he warned.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "You collapsed. Thor transported you to his ship. Seems your brain had suffered irreparable damage from the Ancient download. He froze you again, created a clone, and transferred your consciousness to your new body."

"Then why the hell don't I look myself?"

"Well you do. Just... younger."

"Yeah, what's with that?"

"Look, Jack, the Asgard have perfected - well, mostly perfected - the transfer of consciousness from one body to another. They've been doing it for millennia. Thor assures us that the Asgard cloning problem didn't affect them until many, many clones later. Your new body is essentially perfect. Thor aged you to the point at which he figured you'd feel comfortable."

Jack turned back to the mirror and studied the much younger face looking back at him. "How old do you think I am?"

Daniel frowned behind his glasses and looked at his reflection. "Umm, I'd say thirty something, maybe? Younger than when we first met."

"Thor does a good job."

"Hmm?"

"A little too good, Daniel. I look brand spanking new!" Where the hell where his laugh lines? He'd had them at thirty. Harlan had done a better job at reproducing him, scars and all. This new body looked a bit too artificial, too perfect without the reminders of his past pains.

Daniel snorted behind him. "Only you would complain at getting a new, younger version of yourself."

"Ah, been there, done that!" He already had a clone back on earth. Wasn't there enough of him going around? Was he even the original anymore? Technically, he wasn't by all accounts.

"This is different, Jack. We had no choice. We couldn't just let you die."

"You know, I specifically had a living will to prevent this exact sort of thing. No extraordinary means, doesn't that mean anything to anyone?"

"Like I said, this is different. The Asgard had the technology to keep you alive. You're too important to everyone."

He snorted at that. He was a pain in the ass Colonel who'd broken to many rules, made too many enemies, and they thought he was too important? Sometimes he wondered at the collective intelligence of the Asgard at choosing him to be their favorite Tau'ri. He was just the unlucky idiot who didn't learn his lessons very well and kept literally sticking his head where it didn't belong.

"Jack, can't you just be happy to be alive? Think of this as a blessing. This gives you a couple of more decades on the field."

"Oh yeah. Another twenty years of being shot at, sarcophagused, implanted..." he grumbled.

"Look, the deed is done. We can't undo what's happened. Just accept it, okay?"

Daniel left the bathroom, leaving him alone to continue staring at himself. This was going to take some explaining once they got back to the SGC. He didn't relish the briefing with Dr. Weir. He really missed Hammond.

Speaking of the SGC, where the hell was the rest of his team? Wasn't Carter the one who was usually roped in to explain all this science fiction stuff to him rather than Daniel? He got a sudden sinking feeling. Why wasn't she here? Did something happen after they beamed on board Thor's ship? Did Fifth do more than she'd let on?

Forgetting his own troubles momentarily, he went after Daniel determined to find out where Carter was.

* * *

Jack eventually found his way to his quarters after wandering the Asgard facility for what seemed like hours. Daniel had done a disappearing act and he found no one in the corridors to ask for directions. He'd looked around until he got tired of looking and walking in bare feet - where the hell were his shoes, anyway? - and traced his way back to the room in which he'd woken up.

Someone had been in during his walkabout and left some Asgard food blocks and, he was happy to find, his combat boots and BDUs. Now, if he could only find his team and Thor and book it back to Earth, he'd be a happy man.

He picked up one of the blocks on the plate and gave it an experimental sniff.

"Thor likes the yellow ones."

"Hmm." He stuffed one in his mouth and chewed slowly. "Tastes like Swarfega."

Sam Carter approached him hesitantly, unsure how to act around him for some reason. He looked so... Hot.

"How you doin' sir?"

Jack sighed and put the remaining yellow block of food back on the plate. "Just peachy." He said nonchalantly. "Been cloned again, you know?"

"Yes, sir. You seem to have a penchant for it."

"Yes, well, not exactly something I'd like to be known for."

Sam cleared her throat, her mouth suddenly feeling dry just by looking at him. "Teal'c and Daniel are waiting for us back on Thor's ship. We're ready when you are."

Jack grunted something and pulled off the drab grey shirt they'd put him in. He didn't bother asking Carter to turn around, she knew the drill. He untied the drawstring of his pants and stepped out of them, glad that who ever undressed him had bothered with underwear, no matter how 'brief'.

Sam just stared at her commanding officer, forgetting she was supposed to turn around for the sake of his modesty, forgetting that she wasn't supposed to look at him with naked lust in her eyes, or that she was supposed to be in love with someone else.

He was down to his underwear and she couldn't help but note that he more than filled it, and that the rest of his body was just as tight. His body looked ripped, toned, perfect. The Asgard had created the ideal body for the Colonel, although she suspected that he'd looked something like this at a similar age. Jack O'Neill had been a soldier all his life, a trained killer, and a master strategist. He would've trained his body to peak performance and that meant something like this body she couldn't help but ogle.

She noted that he'd done up his belt and was about to look up and she quickly turned away, her face burning at the thought of being caught staring at him. "You done sir?"

"Let's, Carter. Don't want to outstay our welcome!" Jack said cheerily, pushing her forward towards the doorway.

Sam looked over at her right shoulder where he'd touched her briefly and felt a tingle. Oh, Boy!

* * *

Daniel half jogged to catch up to Jack as his friend exited the elevator on sub-level 22 on his way to the commissary. He'd been looking for the man for the past half hour, but the newly minted General had proven elusive.

"So, rumor has it you've accepted the big chair."

"And the rumors would be right," Jack replied not pausing in his stride.

"Have you thought of what this would mean for SG-1?"

"Oh yeah," Jack once again replied not once glancing at Daniel.

"O-kay. Let me rephrase that: I thought having this new body thing was a way of keeping you in the field longer? Now, you're- you're just gonna be in the sidelines watching Walter dial up the chevrons!"

Jack pushed the commissary doors open with both arms forcing Daniel to step behind him. "I didn't have a choice in this whole 'body thing' remember? This wasn't in the plan. Besides, Carter's ready. She'll make a wonderful leader for SG-1."

"That's not the point Jack..."

"Then what is your point, Daniel?" Jack grabbed a tray from a stack and brought it over to the dessert counter and loaded it with two plates of cake. He brought the tray over to an empty table, pulled up a chair and sat down. Jack placed a plate in front of him moved the other across the table where Daniel also pulled up a chair.

"I guess I don't really have one. We just don't want to lose you on the team, Jack. It's not gonna be the same without you. Don't get me wrong, Sam's gonna be great, but I just don't understand why you decided to accept the promotion now."

"To be fair, Daniel, they've never offered before." Jack said quietly.

Daniel raised his eyebrows. " Oh."

"Yeah" Jack smiled now playing with his cake. "If I turn this down, they might not offer again." He cleared his throat. "Besides I didn't want to deal with another idiot like Bauer from the Pentagon who knows zilch about running the SGC. It's not like Hammond's gonna be allowed to come back, it'd be like a demotion for him from being head of Homeworld Security."

Daniel nodded his head in understanding. He dug into his cake and smiled up at their fearless leader. "I think the Pentagon has finally done something right."

Jack laughed. "Yep. Me as the big cheese, el jefe, the big kahuna..."

"THE Man," Daniel added laughing with him.

"I spent most of my life stickin' it to The Man."

"And now you're it."

"Maybe I could tell them I changed my mind..."

* * *

**Let me know if you guys think Chapter 2 is worth posting. If not, I'll just stick to PD for now until that's done and dusted, and will start on a different story I'm currently outlining. xx**


	2. Lost in Irony

**Seems you guys actually want to read this =) Here's another chapter for being so dang awesome and reviewing! **

**To My Reviers w/o an account: **

**Kate - I don't actually explore Sam's experience with Fifth in this story. This focuses more on Jack, how he attempts to move on from his feelings for Sam, and how that affects his relationship with the rest of SG-1, with Daniel in particular. The whole Fifth and RepliCarter is something I explore in my other fanfic, Plausible Deniability, if that's a sort of story you'd like to read. A bit of a warning though: It's over 100K words at the moment, so it's not something you can just dip into ;-)**

**Kahuna - You do make my evenings! Insightful reviews are like manna from heaven. And YEP, this is my 'Carter must suffer for hurting O'Neill' fic. LOL! BTW, I've posted the Outtake for PD if you haven't already read it. **

* * *

**CHAPTER 2: Lost in Irony**

The 'old' Jack O'Neill had never been that interested in gadgets and blinking things. He had a cell phone, a cd player in his truck, no computer at home and his Gameboy was a relic of the 80s. He left it to Carter and even Daniel to play with the 'neat' new toys consumers seemed so eager to devour these days.

But for some unknown reason - known only to the Asgard - the little grays had found it necessary to play around with his cloned brain and make a few tweaks. In Jack's opinion, he was now brain damaged. Off his rocker. No longer in possession of ones faculty. One fry short of a... Oh, hey, neat!

Jack's brain quickly shifted into fascinated mode as he watched the animated 3D shapes rotating and merging from one form to another on his cell phone. He'd hacked it this morning during a briefing with SG-13. Dave Dixon had fallen asleep during Balinsky's fascinating account of Menoan culture on P6X-229, and Jack had pretended to be making notes on his computer, nodding at all the right places, grunting at others, Balinsky completely oblivious to his audience's inattention too busy clicking away on the projector.

He'd had no idea what compelled him to click on the little icon of some kind of bull on his applications dock, or what made him learn and install the program on the machine in the first place, but he'd had the image of the shapes in his head and his fingers did the walking. He'd written the simple program that demonstrated trig and fixed-point arithmetic and sent the program to his cell phone. The result fascinated him.

It was just a few shapes merging and rotating. A neat phone screen saver. But to Jack it represented something else. It showed him a new part of himself that hadn't been there before and it scared him a little.

Carter was the brains of the base. He was the muscle. He was far from stupid before, but he never fooled himself into thinking that he'd ever understand the words that came out of Carter's mouth completely. Her intelligence was just too out there. They'd traipsed around the galaxy going head to head with more advanced societies and Carter still proved that she could out think the best of them.

Now he found himself more than capable of understanding her. Ever since he'd been cloned he'd started to notice that he was definitely different. Better everything physically. He could hear the birds in the morning like they'd been amplified. Food tasted better, probably because this body had never tasted tobacco. He saw things better at night, not even realizing he'd forgotten to turn his headlights until another car had flashed him.

The downside was, he couldn't tell anyone. Since Janet was gone, he couldn't trust anyone in the infirmary to keep his little secret.

So, he had to play it dumb as always, although this time around it was far more difficult. There had been a few times where he'd wanted to contribute something and he was about to open his mouth to tell Carter and had to quickly shut his mouth. He wasn't supposed to know that stuff and Carter would know it.

There would be questions he wasn't prepared to answer and didn't want the damned NID sniffing around the SGC making claims that he was a liability. No way in hell. He could just see the NID demanding that he step down because he'd been 'influenced' by alien allies; or even worse, demand that he be subjected to 'tests'. No freaking way was he gonna be a lab rat.

Jack was roused from his dark thoughts by a knock on his office door. He opened the top drawer in his desk, dropped the cell phone in and quickly closed it. "Come in!"

Daniel poked his head in. "Hey, Jack."

"Daniel!" He pushed away from behind the desk and stood up, still not feeling all that comfortable talking to Daniel in that position. "Get in here."

Daniel looked around, frowning suspiciously at Jack. He shrugged as if deciding it was safe enough and sat down in one of the chairs. Jack propped himself up on the edge of his desk and stared questioningly at the archaeologist.

"_Oui_?"

"I need to contact Langara."

"_Pourquoi_?"

"I need to talk to Jonas about the rubbings I sent him from P3X-666. I've finally found the time go over the last of them, including copies of the ones I asked Jonas to help with and I think I've found something big."

"Something big?" Jack repeated, adding quote marks with his fingers.

"It mentions a city. Obviously not Atlantis since we've... kinda... found it, but another outpost, a much larger one in our own galaxy. I also found this," He handed Jack his notepad.

"A gate address," Jack quickly recognized the six symbols as one that didn't appear on the Abydos cartouche or one of the addresses that he'd entered whilst he'd carried the ancient download. Another gift of the Asgard: Eidetic memory.

"He's had these rubbings for months, he should be done translating them by now. I want to know why he hasn't contacted us."

"You think something's gone wrong?" Jack speculated.

"Baal's already sent one Goa'uld spy to Kelowna. We can't discount anything."

* * *

Daniel was in his lab prepping the rest of his kit for the upcoming mission to PX1 313, the planet where they hoped was an Ancient outpost. Jack had contacted the Kelownan council in order to speak to Jonas Quinn. They were informed that Jonas had taken a trip to the Stargate and had not returned. The Council woman went as far as to inform General O'Neill that if they found Mr. Quinn to inform that he no longer had a position to return to.

Jonas' disappearance supported Daniel's suspicion that Jonas had indeed finished translating the rubbings and was either coerced or for some unknown reason, had gone to the planet fully cognizant.

The latter disturbed Daniel more. What would compel the young man to just abandon everything, not leave a note or even mention to anyone what he was going to do? Did it have anything to do with the tension Daniel and everyone else in the Control Room had sensed from the Kelownan Council? Jonas had abandoned his home world once, had he done it again for similarly good reasons?

Daniel gave up speculating and zipped up his pack, happy with its contents. Jack always complained about over packing and despite Daniel's constant reminder that they _needed_ those things, Jack still ribbed him about it. Now that Sam was his new CO - _Man, it was weird thinking of her that way!_ - he was still careful to only pack the essentials.

Of course, he wasn't so sure now if they were going to have Sam for that much longer. Sure, she'd always put her career first in the past, but her acceptance of Pete's ring made Daniel think that it was the beginning of the end of SG-1.

It started with Jack's promotion and now with Sam getting married, he was sure the team was set to break up. Daniel kinda got the feeling that Pete wasn't too happy with Sam's job and the moment they tied the knot, he'd be demanding kids and that meant no more gate travel for Sam. Knowing Sam, she wouldn't risk gate travel, leaving a child of hers motherless. Young Sam had been through that and the older Sam Carter wouldn't let it happen to her own child. She'd probably still work in the labs, but she might as well just be Doctor Carter (Shanahan?) because in effect, Lieutenant Colonel Carter The Soldier, would be gone.

Which was ironic really.

Sam had 'Gotten a life' only because she believed that she couldn't have the man she was in love with, only to end up out of the field, stuck inside a lab and all the reasons she wasn't with Jack gone. It was a damned Greek tragedy and Daniel was forced to watch it unfold.

He'd tried speaking to Jack about it, told him the reasons why he should stop this train wreck that was about to happen, but Jack had recited his tired old mantra: _"She's my subordinate" "Her career is important to her" "I would never ask her to give up what she's worked so hard for"._

_"Well, Jack. Pete's not as noble as you. He would ask her to give it all up for him and she'll do it out of guilt instead of the right reasons_." He'd said to his friend.

Jack O'Neill being the obstinate fool that he was, didn't want to hear it. He respected Sam's decisions and if they turned out to be wrong, then he would always be there to support her. Jack was noble alright, _and_ stupid.

If it had been Sha're, he wouldn't have let her go so easily. He knew that Jack loved Sam just as much as Daniel loved his wife, but Jack's love had always been tainted with feelings of dishonor and the forbidden. Jack was above all else honorable and whilst he broke a lot of rules, he would never break that one rule that kept him and Sam apart. It was unselfish, self-sacrificing, so Jack O'Neill.

Jack was a good man and Daniel was sad that Sam hadn't been willing to wait for his friend, like Jack would always wait for her.

* * *

Jack wandered into Daniel's lab and found the younger man staring off into space. It seemed that Jonas' disappearance had upset Daniel more than Jack had realized.

He knocked on the open door. "Daniel, you okay?"

Daniel quickly turned to him and took a deep breath, his thoughts miles or is it light years away?

He saw Daniel remove his glasses and massage the space between his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Just fine. What can I do for you Jack?" Daniel saw what he was wearing and looked at his watch. "It's only five. You're already leaving?"

Jack picked up one of Daniel's 'Rocks' and started playing with it. "I've decided to take my own advice and get a life, Spacemonkey. You game?"

* * *

**Chapter 3 is almost ready to post. Let me know what you think of this so far. Reviews are wonderful incentives to write fic instead, of say, doing laundry, exercising, feeding my ravenous kids... **


	3. Dee World, She's-ah Round

**A very big THANK YOU to all my readers and wonderfully insightful reviewers. You guys rock. I love all your suggestions, and views on the characters. Keep them coming please =)**

**Warnings: Language. **

* * *

**Chapter 3: Dee World, She's-ah round! **

Jack drove him back to his place to get 'suitable' change of clothing. Daniel had no idea where they were going to get a life, but it seemed to require his trainers and work out clothes. He ran up to his apartment to change while Jack waited in his truck and five minutes later, he was back and they were driving away to their destination.

They ended up at a leisure centre near the downtown area and Jack motioned for him to follow into the building. Daniel looked around the bland concrete walls, notice boards, trophy cases and wide double doors that seem to be the choice of decor for public centers.

He quickly walked after Jack who was opening one of the double doors that lead to a brightly lit gymnasium.

"O'Neill! We started to think you weren't gonna show!" Daniel heard the familiar voice shout out.

Jack dropped his small gym bag on a bench and walked sedately over to Dave Dixon who was casually dribbling a basketball. Dixon glanced at Daniel briefly, clearly a bit surprise to see him there, but didn't comment.

He remained near the benches so he didn't hear Jack's reply and looked at the other guys in the court. He recognized all of them as SGC personnel, and he had to confess, most of them he'd never seen outside of base and uniform. They all nodded at him. Siler, Simmons, Reynolds, Griff, and of course Lou Ferretti.

"Last person we expected Jack to bring," Ferretti told Daniel as he passed the second basketball to Simmons who caught it with ease. The Major jogged over to Daniel and gripped his arm in greeting.

Lou Ferretti had been on that first Abydos mission and he'd been a complete asshole to Daniel. Almost a decade of knowing each other had changed the military man's opinion of Daniel. They now had respect that was forged from shared battles and lost comrades. Ferretti no longer saw the archaeologist as a bumbling geeky scientist; Daniel had proven everyone that he was a good soldier.

"Ferretti." Daniel smiled back at the smaller man. He looked back at the other guys back in the court now doing lay ups. "So... You guys meet up a lot outside the base?"

"What? These guys-" Ferretti indicated behind him with his thumb. "we meet up every month or so when Dave's wife lets him out. We call it the 'Flat Earth Society'. At first it was just a bunch of us going to the bar having drinks and stuff. Dave twisted his ankle a couple of times and his wife banned him from going, so we decided less on the alcohol and more on the 'stuff'."

Daniel saw Simmons bag a three pointer. "Hey, Graham's pretty good. He never struck me as the athletic type."

Ferretti looked fondly at the young man. "He's a great kid. He'll never be combat material, but he's really good in the court."

"Hey!" Dave yelled at the two of them. "You ladies gonna play or what?"

"I'll show you who's the pussy around here, Dixon!" Ferretti yelled back. He slapped Daniel on the back. "I hope you're good, Jackson. I wanna be able to back that up!"

* * *

The 'FES' guys were pretty evenly matched and Jack's team only won by several points. He, Jack, Ferretti and Griff were on the same team. Dixon, Reynolds, Siler and Simmons on the other. As Lou had said, Simmons was a good player, much better than Daniel and if it weren't for Jack and Ferretti's skills in the court, it would've been a massacre on their side.

Daniel noted that Jack's new body was a definite advantage. He was fitter and faster than any of the guys. His economy of movement serving him well; not that he needed it. Jack had always been a bundle of energy, but this younger version seemed even more so. Whilst the rest of the guys looked about ready to collapse after the game, Jack was doing layups, his muscled body gleaming with sweat.

"Hey, O'Neill! Quit showing off to the ladies. Just show'em your star. That'll get them!" Major Griff laughed at his own joke, the other guys joining in.

Daniel glanced at the bleachers, and indeed there were a few ladies eyeing Jack's little performance, or most likely, his attributes. A couple of teenage girls, not much older than Cassie, were giggling and staring at the man that was old enough to be their grandfather, even if he didn't look it.

Jack made a face and jogged towards them. "Assholes," The general muttered at Griff. This only set off the guys again, Dave Dixon slapping Jack in the back hard enough to hurt.

O'Neill pulled off his sleeveless shirt and used it to wipe up his face. "So, where we going for some chow?"

"Nice Italian place, General. Cannelloni just like my mother used to make," Ferretti replied.

Jack nodded. "Sounds good."

They hit the showers before heading over to the restaurant. It was an upscale place and Jack was pretty sure they wouldn't feed a bunch of sweaty ballers. Ferretti gave them directions to the restaurant and the eight men descended on the unsuspecting eatery.

* * *

Sam Carter shifted uncomfortably in her chair trying to keep the smile firmly on her face.

_Why the hell did I agree to wear this stupid dress?_ She thought to herself.

_"Because Pete bought it thinking you would look gorgeous in it, not at all caring that it revealed too much thighs when you're sitting down,"_ was the snarky reply from her internal monologue. She felt like the whole restaurant was staring at her legs thinking she was some... well it didn't bear thinking.

Her fiancé was retelling an incident that had happened to him at work last week that involved a dog, a clown and a monkey and for the life of her she couldn't figure out why he thought it was so funny. But like the dutiful fiancé, she had to be supportive and keep smiling at Pete's increasingly annoying sense of humor. She'd found it adorable and quirky at the beginning, but it had rapidly become childish and did she mention really, really annoying?

She missed acerbic, sarcastic and dry humor.

"So, what'd you do at work today?" Pete asked her, finally finished with his story.

_Well, lets see... I adjusted the power distribution of our naquadah reactor. I prepped my kit for tomorrow's mission to PX1 313, making sure we had the tech specs for a ZPM just in case we do find an Ancient outpost and hopefully find Jonas safe and sound..._

Sam smiled, flashing Pete her dimples. That usually dissuaded another argument about her job. "You know I can't discuss-"

"I get it, I get it!" Pete preempted "It's classified." He sighed in resignation. This was an old issue with them. "It just makes it difficult to make conversation, you know?"

A little voice inside Sam's head muttered that she never had to make conversation with Jack, er, General O'Neill.

"I know and I'm sorry," she apologized for what felt like the umpteenth time. She really didn't want to get into this again, not tonight.

"Colonel Carter. Fancy seeing you here!"

She looked up thankfully at the man who'd approached their table, giving her a slight reprieve. "Ferretti!"

He smiled widely at Sam and then glanced at Pete deciding to introduce himself. "Colonel Lou Ferretti. I work with the Lt. Colonel in Cheyenne Mountain."

Pete shook the proffered hand, his previously darkening mood gone. He was now grinning. "Detective Pete Shannahan, Sam's fiancé."

Ferretti raised his eyebrows. "You don't say. Hey, I bet the guys would love to meet the lucky son of a gun who caught the Colonel here," He said winking at Sam.

Sam frowned, her mouth parting slightly in confusion, and turned to look at the entrance near the bar. _Oh God. What was he doing here?!_

Ferretti motioned to where Sam was looking. "General O'Neill's trying to get us a table. The place is booked up, but if anyone can charm the birds from the trees, it's Jack."

Pete scoffed in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me, right? That lady's cold. Several guys from my precinct have tried to get her number. They were all shot down."

"Well I guess you've never seen the General in a dog fight. He's never gone down."

The three of them watched the General smile at the lady in question, gesticulating briefly before shoving his hands in his pocket. The Maitre D laughed at something he said and started flipping through her reservation book. O'Neill said something again, and the woman flicked her hair back.

Ferretti grinned widely. "Houston, we've got lift off!"

Sam saw her fiancé shrug. "Maybe she found a cancellation or something."

"She's writing something..." Ferretti told them.

They watched as the Maitre D scrawled something on a piece of paper then handed it to O'Neill. The General glanced at it smiling back at the woman and quickly pocketed the folded paper.

"He got us both a table and her number. Sweet!" Ferretti crowed.

Sam and Pete both gapped at what just happened. Pete because Jack O'Neill had just accomplished what half the guys from his precinct couldn't do and Sam because she couldn't believe that Jack had actually flirted with that woman. She was half his age, for god sake! What was he thinking even looking at her?

Then it hit her. In the eyes of that woman, Jack wasn't twice her age; and if Sam were being honest with herself, if Jack had flirted with the woman before he was cloned, it would be the same outcome. General O'Neill would have her number and the woman wouldn't care about his age because any woman would be lucky to have him.

Sam had never seen the General in action before and she suspected that was because Jack thought himself too old for that sort of thing. Aside from his off color remarks in Hak'tyl and the lingering looks at Ishta's warriors, General O'Neill was never the type to use his charms in order to get his way. In fact, charming wasn't the word most of the aliens they'd encountered would use to describe her erstwhile Colonel.

She saw that Jack had seen them and was it her imagination or did he look suddenly uncomfortable? He walked over to their table and smiled tightly at Sam and acknowledged Pete.

He turned to Ferretti. "You owe me, Louis. That young lady's going to be very, very unhappy if I don't call her." He reached into his pocket. "Give this to Graham and tell him to take her somewhere nice."

"She's hot, Jack," Ferretti muttered under his breath.

"She's just a kid," O'Neill replied. He met her gaze and they lingered. Everything seemed to fade away and it was just the two of them in a perfect moment. Somewhere in the back of her mind she heard Ferretti say something.

"The rest of the guys are here, Jack."

O'Neill turned away and the moment was broken. "Good to see you again, Shanahan. Carter, I'll see you tomorrow morning bright eyed and bushy tailed!"

With that, he pulled Ferretti away to join the rest of the gang.

* * *

"Funny seeing Sam and Pete here."

"Funny."

"They celebrating the engagement?"

"No idea, Daniel. Wasn't going to ask." He took a swig of his beer bottle not really in the mood to discuss this particular topic with Daniel. He gave the younger man a warning glare telling him silently that he wasn't going to talk about this now.

Daniel being Daniel, just ignored the look his friend was sending him and continued on. "Maybe we should invite them to join us... Get to know Pete better."

"Daniel. I swear to God..." Jack was about ready to take his bottle and hit Daniel over the head with it. Get to know _Pete_ better?! Fucking hell, he didn't even want to know the man existed much less get all friendly with him! He may have told Carter that she deserved to have a life and be happy, but there was no way he was gonna stick around and watch it happen. He'd learned to accept that she was no longer his - was never his - and that soon enough she'd be married to someone else, having children with someone else, and he'd spend the rest of his life loving her still. It was a morose thought and he'd promised himself that he'd find a way to move on and maybe, just maybe, someone out there would be merciful and he'd stop being in love with Carter.

"Relax, Jack. I was just kidding."

Jack glared at him.

Daniel slumped back in his chair. "I know. I'm was being an ass. Sorry."

They sat there silently at their table watching the FES guys play darts at the bar while they waited for their food. Jack decided to give Daniel a break and forgive him for his baiting. He knew that Daniel was only trying to get a reaction out of him. His friend didn't understand why Jack wasn't doing anything to stop Carter from making a mistake and just ask Carter to wait for him.

What Daniel didn't get was that Carter was entitled to have happiness in her life. She wanted a normal life and a family. Hell, he wanted those things too with her! But he knew he couldn't give her those things. Not soon enough for her liking.

"Easy on the beer, Spacemonkey. You've got a mission tomorrow."

Daniel grinned at his conciliatory tone. "It's too bad you can't come with. We might need your 'unique' abilities on this one. You think we'll find Jonas?"

Jack shrugged. "We'll get a better idea once we send a MALP through. It could be as simple as a broken DHD."

Daniel had to laugh at that. When did it happen? When did a broken DHD no longer spell 'disaster'?

* * *

The next morning, SG-1 gated over to the address that Daniel had found from the images of the ruins on P3X-666. As per standard operating procedure, a MALP was sent ahead of the team and initial re-con revealed no signs of a DHD which might have explained why Jonas Quinn was not able to contact Earth or the Alpha site.

Daniel suggested sending a UAV to check out the surroundings, hoping that Jonas - if he was indeed on the planet- would recognize the plane and realize that the SGC had found him. O'Neill okayed the plan and Sgt. Siler made the necessary preparations.

SG-1 followed a few minutes after the UAV and stepped out into another hot and sandy planet with not much to recommend it except for the vast ruins that spread below the gate, and that really only appealed to Daniel.

The gate was mounted on huge slabs of coppery stone overlooking an ancient city. It was hard to believe that life ever existed there, let alone a civilization. Crumbling, sand covered, stone steps led them down inside the ruined the city. Daniel was gawking, almost jumping with excitement at the treasure trove before him.

"Here," he told Teal'c, not even glancing at the big man, handing him his video camera. "Hold this and don't stop recording. This-this is... Wow. Amazing!"

He didn't see Sam smirk behind him.

"Perhaps we should focus on finding JonasQuinn," Teal'c suggested.

Daniel finally pulled away from his exploration and looked back at his team. "Sorry. Of course. Where do we start?"

"You two look for Jonas," Sam replied. "I'm gonna set up the generator. We might have to gate out of here fast."

He and Teal'c nodded and started down the path to the city. They would need to get a move on before darkness set in and make a search far more difficult.

Daniel wondered silently in what condition they would find Jonas. He didn't see any sources of water or food anywhere. Just crumbled buildings and desert. It was hard to think positively when the sun was beating mercilessly down on them and he was constantly reaching for his canteen to stave off heat exhaustion.

They had a good view of the Stargate even after half an hour of walking further into the city, and he could just make out Sam's form and the MALP. She would have radioed in already if the UAV had found anything. It was more likely, if Jonas was around, that he would be hiding out in one of the more intact buildings to avoid the heat.

"Jonas!"

"DanielJackson?"

"We're getting no where here, Teal'c. If Jonas is here, he'll be hiding from this heat."

Teal'c inclined his head in understanding. They both started yelling out Jonas' name, marching further into the city.

"Dr. Jackson? Teal'c?" Both Daniel and Teal'c turned towards a mostly buried building that might have been a temple once and saw a frail looking Jonas Quinn standing by a huge pillar.

The two of them ran quickly to their missing comrade, Jonas meeting them halfway.

"I thought I was imagining things," Jonas told them grinning ear to ear. "I thought maybe the heat had finally gotten to me and I'm starting to hear things! How did you find me?

Daniel laughed in relief. It seems nothing could dampen the younger man's enthusiasm. "The print outs from P3X-666. When you didn't get back to me, I started to worry and contacted Langara."

"Yes! I knew you would find the gate address and it was only a matter of time."

"Are you fairing alright, JonasQuinn?" Teal'c asked, clearly concerned.

"Oh, I'm more than fine, Teal'c. Just wait until you see what I've found!"

* * *

**Oooh, the gang is back together! Hehe. Who else loves Jonas? I love bringing him back in all my stories. Pete though... Gagh! **


	4. Bananas And White Lies

**Chapter 4: Bananas And White Lies**

Daniel couldn't believe his eyes. After radioing Sam and asking her to report the happy news back to the SGC, Jonas had led them into the buried building, into large, intricate hallways that were lit by some unknown power source.

When Jonas finally showed them what he'd been so excited about, he felt just about ready to burst.

At the end of the large hall, was a chair, a very familiar chair. "He-llo," he muttered to himself.

"Before you even ask, Dr. Jackson. 'Yes' there's definitely a working ZPM in there."

He walked over the Ancient chair and sat on it. Nothing happened. "How did you get the lights to work?"

Jonas shrugged. "I figured it was from something that Nirrti did that somehow lets this place detect my bio-signs and signals things to power up. The chair didn't work though."

"No. I think we'd need Jack for that." They definitely needed Jack around. His Ancient gene would show them just how much of the city's technology remained intact and if they could somehow salvage it. They desperately needed a functioning ZPM to defend Earth.

"You wouldn't believe this place! There's pools in the centre of the building. That's how I managed to survive. I think this city used to be near an ocean before this solar system's star became this hot. They couldn't use the sea water, so they built underground pools."

"Amazing."

"Oh yes! It's even got it's own greenhouse. I don't know if you saw it from the Stargate, but there's a huge dome that somehow maintained plant life and vegetation... It looks like a jungle."

He saw Jonas grin, reach into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a banana.

Teal'c raised his eyebrow. "Indeed."

"These grow everywhere."

* * *

Sam watched the event horizon wink out and moved away from the MALP. General O'Neill was pleased that they found Jonas safe and was now prepping a science team to join SG-1 in checking out what was left of the Ancient ruins.

She was itching to go down and check out the ZPM Jonas had found, but she had to wait for SG-3 to show up to cover the gate. They couldn't be too careful. Although, Anubis was gone, there was still Ba'al and they didn't know how much of Anubis's research into Ancient technology the system lord had access to. Anubis had sent a probe to '666 and he too might have found out about the gate address.

Until Reynolds and his team arrived, she was left to cool her heels by the gate, guarding the Naquadah generator.

She sighed, impatient to join her team inside the city. She'd had a sleepless night and the heat wasn't helping any. At least there was a breeze, albeit warm.

Her mind started to wander to her discussion with Pete last night. After seeing General O'Neill and the boys at the restaurant, she and Pete headed to Starbucks for some coffee. Her fiancé had asked some uncomfortable questions about the General and she'd had to lie to him.

It was becoming more and more easier to just lie to Pete instead of getting into another argument about her work. He never really pushed or got angry with her, but he always had that look of disappointment that she couldn't share a large part of herself with him.

She couldn't really tell him about the Asgard and how General O'Neill was now actually a clone because his body couldn't survive the Ancient download and subsequent stress of being frozen in Antarctica after having save the world from alien invasion.

No. She couldn't tell him that.

The only thing that made her lie believable was that Pete had never really met the General except for brief glimpses during the Osiris op. He'd been hurt at the time and couldn't really trust his recollection of the people involved.

So many lies just to cover for the fact that Jack looked a lot different than he used to.

_Jack._

She'd rarely called him that even in her mind. She'd completely stopped after what happened on the Prometheus and started dating Pete. She would never be able to call him that now. Whatever hopes she'd harbored about the two of them ending up together were no more. She'd decided to move on with Pete and had declared it for the world to see with his ring.

She sometimes wondered if she'd done the right thing. If Jack even thought of her in that way anymore. She'd tried to get him to say something, going so far as to ask for his advice about her answer to Pete's proposal. She'd given him the opportunity to change her mind, but he'd given her a vague answer about not being at the SGC if things had been different.

She supposed he was right. If things had been different and his son were still alive, he wouldn't have been on the first Abydos mission. He'd be with his family, still married to Sara. They would've never met and she wouldn't have fallen in love with him.

Maybe she was meant to be with Pete. She and Jack would always have something stacked against them. Being both at the SGC meant being in the same chain of command. If things had been different, he would still be married and probably still very much in love with his wife. Either way, they couldn't be together.

She'd comforted herself with the thought of just having his friendship and going out there fighting the war side by side. That was something they had together that no one could replace.

Then, he'd been frozen for months and just when she thought they had him back on the team, he got himself promoted to General. SG-1 as she knew it was no more.

From what she'd seen last night, he'd also moved on with his friendships. It used to be the four of them going out to dinner. After she started seeing Pete, it had become less frequent and eventually it just stopped.

It wasn't a surprise that he'd decided to get out there instead of staying home doing nothing. It was only a matter of time before he also moved on with his life. To what he moved on to she wasn't willing to contemplate just yet.

* * *

Three days later, SG-1 was back home. Daniel and Jonas had to be dragged off the planet, both protesting loudly just how important their find was. The ZPM was going to be removed in three days time and both wanted to take advantage of the time to study as much of the ruins possible before the city was robbed of it's power source.

O'Neill had a hard time convincing Daniel that once the ZPM was gone, the ruins would still be there and they had a spare Naquadah generator that they could rig up to provide lighting in the chambers. He'd also had to promise to let Daniel and Jonas return once they had recovered from heat exhaustion.

The planet was more than harsh, with the sun beating down 28 hours of the 32, with sand storms starting earlier and earlier each evening. He'd had to rotate the science teams, Dr. Brightman advising him that each team should have at least three days off to recuperate before returning to the planet.

Jonas wasn't allowed to return for another two weeks. He'd been a bit malnourished, having only eaten fruits and leaves. Jack had promised him a nice juicy steak to help him get back on his feet.

But first, he needed to deal with Washington. Once knowledge of an Ancient base had gone up through the channels, the NID had quickly come a knocking, wanting to lend their 'expertise'. Everyone wanted a piece of the pie and Jack was determined to keep the NID out of it.

He didn't trust the bastards one bit. He knew what they were capable of and part of taking the job as the SGC commander was looking out for the best interest of the facility from the enemies within. Although the NID were no longer controlled by the Committee, a part of him still distrusted the organization. He also now had the additional headache of making sure the Trust didn't get their hands on any of the tech and intel that would be coming into the SGC. He was a running a tight ship and only Carter, Daniel and Dr. Lee's team would have access to rocks and doohickeys they brought back.

General Hammond wanted to see him in DC once things quieted down to discuss his concerns with the President. Hammond warned him that there would be also a meeting with the NID, IOC and CIA. All the acronyms made his head hurt.

All the e-mails from Woolsey also made his head hurt. He hated bureaucrats with a passion, much more than he ever hated scientists in his early days with the SGC. The geeks always questioned his orders and then disobeyed them. He'd kinda mellowed on them after being constantly surrounded for more than eight years. Carter was a scientist, and he liked her.

He cleared his throat and started tapping furiously at his laptop keyboard to dislodge that particular avenue of thought. He wasn't going to think about her and just how much... Well he wasn't going to.

He quickly typed an appropriate and polite response to Richard Woolsey, telling him to f-off. Not exactly in those words, but he felt the sentiment had come through.

Just as his mind started to drift off to no-go territory once again, his e-mail program dinged, informing him that he'd gotten another piece of mail. He just hoped it wasn't Woolsey threatening to tell the Joint Chiefs.

He clicked on his dock and brought up the mail program. He sighed as he read the sender's name.

So much for keeping his mind off her.

It had been sent from her home account. She probably couldn't wait to get out of the mountain and back home to Pete. She'd only been back from the planet for about four hours and the old Carter never left her lab when she was expecting new technology to come in.

Then again, she wasn't going to be Carter any longer. He'd have to stop calling her that and revert to just 'Colonel' because he didn't think he could stomach calling her by her married name.

_Shit._

What the hell was wrong with him?

He had to get over this. He'd had his chance and he'd fucked it up. She'd given him the opportunity and he'd let it slip by. It had been the right thing to do. It wasn't his place to make that life altering decision for her and as much as he wanted to fight for her, he didn't have the right to.

She loved her career, loved the SGC and he couldn't take that away from her. He'd tried to quit at least once after being promoted, but he always got pulled back in and he knew that it would always be the case. As much as he wanted to be with her, his presence at the SGC was needed. They still had a fight to win and with his new found abilities, courtesy of the Asgard and the O'Neill gene pool, they had a better chance with him at the helm.

He read through her e-mail and couldn't suppress a laugh.

Carter really did have a sense of humor. A sick one at that.

Jack was torn. Should he say yes just to spare her feelings and endure a torturous day with her fiancé? Or say no and endure that disappointed and hurt look she would give him when he sees her next?

A real tough one that.

He decided to ask Daniel. Picking up the phone, he punched in the archaeologist's extension and waited as the phone rang. And rang.

He was probably too distracted looking at more rocks with Jonas to notice the ringing. Jack knew from experience to just give it a few more seconds.

_"Ah... Hello?"_

"It's me."

_"What is it,Jack? We're kinda busy here."_

"Take a break, for cryin' out loud! I need your advice on something."

Pause.

_"Hmm. With what exactly?"_

"How do you feel about painting?"

Click.

"Daniel? Hello? Daniel?"

* * *

**Any guesses as to what Sam has asked Jack to do with Pete? Knowing how you guys feel about the cop, this should be entertaining =) I also apologize in advance for the next chapter...**


	5. Posse Comitatus

**Warnings: Some swearing.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Posse Comitatus**

In the end, Jack couldn't really refuse Carter's request without a really good explanation. He'd contemplated actually making a trip to some far off planet, maybe even visit the Tok'ra or perhaps Netu... But he was determined to get over Carter and the sooner the better. He was never one to runaway from a challenge and this was one was a doozy:

A whole freaking day with Carter's fiancé.

Well, if she'd managed to move on, had chosen someone else, there was no reason why he couldn't do the same. He'd made some positive steps towards that goal while in Washington. The thought elicited a smile.

The meeting with the President and the collective acronyms hadn't been a total bust. It had been good to see General Hammond wheeling and dealing with the top brass. The two of them had gone to dinner afterwards, catching up on old times and mutual friends.

At the hotel bar, they ran into one of the CIA agents from the meeting earlier that day and had invited her for a drink.

Jack hadn't planned any of it. He was just being friendly and invited a colleague out of politeness, but George had seen an opportunity. After one drink, the older General had informed them that he was off to his bed for an early meeting at the Pentagon and had left them to it.

Agent Johnson had given him a knowing look and a grin, seeing that Jack was uncomfortable with the situation.

_"So... This is awkward," she said after a minute of silence._

_"Listen-"_

_"No! Look this doesn't have to lead to anything. It's just a drink," she tried to tell him reassuringly._

_Jack knew he was being an ass. Here was a beautiful woman who might just be interested in him and what was he doing? Trying to push her away? For what? He was available and so was she. There were no rules or regulations preventing him from enjoying this woman's company and for once he should really just let go and enjoy himself._

_He looked at her properly and picked up his drink. "You're right. It doesn't have to lead to anything. Not tonight anyway. But I make a lot of trips to Washington."_

_She gave him a startled look, surprised at his suddenly charming demeanor and clear invitation._

_"I'd like that, Jack."_

"Jack? Jack?"

Jack pulled himself away from his reminiscing and focused on Daniel who was calling his name repeatedly.

"What?"

"We're here."

Jack looked out of the passenger side window, realizing that Daniel was right. They had arrived at Pete's bachelor's day out or whatever the hell they called it these days. When he'd gotten married to Sara, he and his friends had gone out the night before the wedding to get stinkin' drunk and he'd woken up in the middle of an airfield only wearing his shorts. His buddies had driven him to the church still hung over, but on time, and Sara hadn't known the difference. That was the extent of his celebration and he liked it that way.

He mentally prepared himself for the 'fun' day ahead and stepped out of the cab. The black Chevy Suburban was SGC issued and Teal'c's preferred mode of transport and Jack liked to indulge the big guy whenever he could. T no longer went out as much after the incident with Krista and her boyfriend, so when he did, Jack made sure his friend had a good time.

"Does this not remind you of our missions, O'Neill?" Teal'c pointed out, looking up at their surroundings.

"Yeah. Trees. Lots of them."

They followed Daniel and Jonas who were already at the reception area. It was a clearing at the end of a dirt path, consisting mainly of wooden shacks with corrugated metal roofs and hand painted signs which proclaimed 'Hot Food' and 'Register'.

"I guess Paul's a really classy guy," He muttered to Teal'c.

"I believe you mean 'Pete', O'Neill."

"Pete, Paul, whatever!"

He saw Daniel shaking hands with a stocky blond guy and recognized him as Carter's fiancé. He gave himself another mental deep breath and went over with Teal'c to join them.

"Wow!" He heard Pete exclaiming. "You guys are gonna be hard to hide in the woods." All four of them, including Jonas, stood taller than the cop.

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be just fine," Jack told him smiling slightly. "In fact, I think you should put us all in the same team."

Paul frowned at him for a moment before shrugging and grinning back at him again. Goofy. Carter was marrying this goofy clown!

"There's actually twelve of us, so you can pick two of the groomsmen for your team."

Jack looked over Pete's shoulder and saw a teenage boy with glasses standing awkwardly to the side as Pete's friends laughed merrily over bottles of Stella. Bleah.

"I'll take him," He pointed to the boy, swimming in his camo overalls that was more than two sizes too big.

Pete looked behind him. "Adam? You want my nephew Adam in your team?"

"Yeah," Jack answered back. "You can keep the other guy."

Pete looked at him oddly again, but merely shrugged.

Shanahan introduced them to the rest of the group, offered them beer, which all four of them declined.

Jack never engaged in battle with alcohol in his blood.

Carter wanted them to get to know her man better. Jack was determined that Shanahan knew exactly who he was dealing with by the end of the day.

Once the teams were assigned, the two guys who were in charge of organizing the games gave them the health and safety speech.

Face masks were too be worn at all times unless everyone had their paint balling guns on the ground. Gloves with a hard plastic back were recommended as the paint balls travelled at more than two hundred miles per hour and could easily take exposed skin off. They weren't allowed to shoot at close range and instead should ask the person to surrender if in their sights. No aiming at the head at anytime.

Next they were told about the weapons available, including paint grenades and smoke screens. More ammo was available at extra cost.

Once the spiel was over, they suited and kitted up in the loose fitting camos provided. Teal'c struggled to fit in his and only just managed to squeeze himself in, much to Jack's amusement. The big guy looked dangerous in his dark skull cap and fitted overalls.

The first game was a simple capture the flag. The objective of each team was to capture the other team's flag mounted near the other team's underground silo and shove it in the silo's chimney. First to do so wins.

Each team had to be inside the underground silo at the start and once the whistle blew they had to quickly file out and engage the enemy.

Jack couldn't believe his luck. This was basic strategy. Something he'd taught raw cadets at the academy. He knew his team very well and had been in battle with them so many times in the past eight years that he didn't even have to discuss strategy with them. Adam looked lost, so Jack knew he'd have to give the kid the easy tasks.

"Can you run fast, kid?"

Adam gave him a small grin. "It's the only thing I _can_ do."

"Good," Jack said, patting him on the back. "You're gonna capture the flag for us."

Adam's eyes widened. "What? But-"

"Don't worry. We'll be covering your ass. Don't think. Just focus on the flag and once you see it, run towards it as fast as you can and head for their chimney."

The teenager nodded, clearly uncertain of Jack's plan, but not brave enough to actually question it. Jack smiled to himself, thinking the kid might make a good soldier with a little more backbone. He knew when to take orders and that's what Jack liked.

The air horn blew and Jack was the first one out of the bunker followed by Adam, Daniel, Jonas and Teal'c who was going to be guarding the flag and bunker.

Both Daniel and Jonas were off like a shot, circling towards the back of the enemy bunker to provide covering fire. Jack was the one in charge of the frontal assault, making sure that none of Paul's team made it into friendly territory. If they did, Teal'c would be taking care of them.

Shanahan's team weren't bad shots. Most of them were police officers and had practice at the range. But most of them had never used anything but a pistol, and the paint ball guns were far more similar in size and weight to a P90 than a hand gun.

Jack found it more than easy to take out each and everyone of them. Daniel and Jonas attacked from behind and the other team found it difficult to actually advance and took cover behind tree trunks. This gave Jack and his team the opening they needed. Jack pushed Adam forward and yelled for him to do his thing.

The boy sprung forward, sprinting without care towards the enemy flag. Pete saw him and took aim, but doing so forced him out of his cover and Daniel dispatched of him in three successive shots.

Jonas hurled a smoke grenade towards the opposing bunker where Adam would have to climb the metal rungs to put the flag in the chimney. It hid him enough that the guy guarding the bunker just kept shooting in his direction, but was then shot promptly in the head by Jack. He went down on the ground clutching at his head mask.

The game was over in five minutes.

The next five games went the same way, with SG-1 not making the game very interesting. Pete's team were covered in yellow paint by the end of it, all groaning and swearing about their bruised bodies.

"Fuck, Pete. Where the hell did you dig up these guys? You said they were scientists at the Air Force, not fucking special ops!"

Pete merely shook his head. O'Neill and his friends had completely humiliated him. He should've known the guy was up to something when he suggested keeping his team together. The way they fought spoke of battle hardened professionals and Pete couldn't help but think this had all been just a form of amusement for them, not really much of a challenge.

Sam would've known this, and yet she hadn't said anything.

* * *

Sam hung up the phone, feeling a headache coming on.

Pete had given her the low down on what happened at his guys day out and he wasn't happy. He'd been cold and abrupt with her, implying that it was her fault he had lost to her friends.

Her fiancé had conveniently forgotten that it was him who had suggested that it would be good for his and her friends to get to know each other and since _all_ of her friends were men, why not paintballing?

She knew what the outcome would be, but once Pete got something in his head, he got so swept up in it that there was no dissuading him. Now he was sulking and it was somehow her fault.

She'd only realized how much this side of him irritated her. He was such a nice guy most of the time, kind and funny. If at times he tended to want his way, she'd tried to be understanding knowing that part of being in a relationship was about compromise. She also just realized that most of the compromising was on her part.

Why was she feeling like this? Ever since she'd said yes to Pete her life felt more and more out of control. All the things she'd taken for granted, her independence, her friendship with SG-1, were all disappearing. Pete constantly called, wanting to know where she was despite her reminders that most of what she did was classified. It was sort of understandable that he wanted to be part of her life, but it was difficult trying to have a normal life when most of her life couldn't be classified as normal. She wasn't used to reporting her whereabouts to someone who wasn't her superior.

As for SG-1 they were now doing their own thing. Teal'c spent more and more time off world visiting the Jaffa ever since his failed attempt at living amongst the humans. Daniel was his usual self, but he was often seen in the General's company, the two of them going out together during their free time, something he and O'Neill didn't used to do back when they were in SG-1 together. Whilst she was still close to Daniel, he'd made it pretty clear that he wasn't that happy with her engagement. Not once did Daniel express any desire to meet her fiancé or inquire about her upcoming wedding.

Then there was the General.

Ever since his promotion she'd felt the distance between them widening. If she were honest with herself it had started in that elevator ride after she'd told him about Pete.

He seemed happy enough for her, but there was always an undercurrent between them, like he was afraid to let his guard down. He no longer made trips to her lab or ask her to have cake with him.

Yeah, the difference in their rank might explain his sudden distance, but she'd always thought that their friendship went beyond such a thing. They would always be subordinate and superior, but he was a friend first. It had hurt her a lot when he'd accepted his promotion and she'd found out from someone else. Daniel had let it slip later that he and O'Neill had spoken about it and both had agreed it was the best thing to do. She'd later approached Teal'c and it turned out he was the first one that O'Neill had told.

Why he was pulling away from her like this, she couldn't understand. Jack O'Neill could be a real pain sometimes, but he wasn't deliberately cruel to her. Her hallucination back on the Prometheus had said that he would always be there for her, but that's all it had been, her own mind trying to comfort her into thinking that he'd be happy with any decision she made.

Now that the decision had been made, she wasn't happy and it seemed neither was the General.

Sam felt the bile rise in her throat. _Oh, god, how could I have let it go this far?_

* * *

**Clueless much, Sam? How do you feel about Carter in this fic? When I wrote it, I was really angry with her and I wonder if that shows. I honestly think that Jack had no other recourse in the series BUT to accept her decision and allow her to move on. Retirement wasn't ever an option when he was constantly being burdened with the fate of the world, and an unfinished war. What do you think? **


	6. Charlie And The Glass AU Mirror

**I want to apologize to my Plausible Deniability readers. I'm currently still plotting out the rest of the story, and completing the next chapter. I haven't abandoned that story, I assure you. **

**I have my in-laws over for a month from Europe, and I'm not getting much done in terms of writing. It's kinda rude to skip out on them for hours on end to write fic. Once they go back, _I'll _be back =)**

**As always, THANK YOU, to all who've reviewed/favourited this story. I loved hearing your views on the whole Sam/Pete debacle. **

* * *

**Chapter 6: Charlie And The Glass A/U Mirror**

Charlie Kawalsky couldn't believe he was doing this again five years later. Why Samantha had to ask this of him and Janet, he'd only speculated through the years, never asking Sam straight out about what he suspected.

When he'd agreed to be the executor of Samantha's will, he would have never guessed that she would ask them such an extraordinary thing to be done in the event of her death.

The three of them were best friends. Charlie had taken it upon himself to be Samantha's rock after Jack's death and had promised to be there for her as long as she needed him. Even when he'd married Janet, the doc had taken it upon herself to make sure Sam didn't feel like Charlie couldn't be there for her any longer.

Sam and Janet had become best friends after that.

"Are you sure this is what she wanted?"

He glanced over at his wife, uncertainty marring her usually smiling face. "I don't know, Jan, but we don't have many choices left. I kinda suspected something went on with him and her back at the SGC. But it wasn't something I could just ask her about."

Janet understood. Samantha always held something back. Charlie told her earlier on that the Sam they knew wasn't the same woman he'd first met back when Jack was still alive. His death had changed her profoundly. She never let anyone in and the only time she was ever happy was when- Well, it now explained things.

"It just doesn't feel right, Charlie. Didn't you say that the SGC would destroy their mirror after you and Sam went through?"

"Well they didn't."

Janet gave him a questioning look. "Sam checked. She checked a year later if they had actually destroyed it like they said, but they didn't. Sam said it was still somewhere in the SGC."

His wife sighed not wanting to do this at all. It was damned near insane, but they couldn't refuse Sam's request. This was what she wanted and made them both swear that they would do it.

He and Janet agreed that he would go back. Her alternate self was still alive there and he didn't want her suffering from that entropic cascade thing. He just hoped that Sam was right and that they hadn't moved the mirror elsewhere. Otherwise he would have a lot more explaining to do.

The first thing that Charlie did after stepping through the mirror was to make contact with an SF and order him to take him to Colonel O'Neill or General Hammond.

The SF had quickly called for backup and he was quickly escorted to the briefing room under armed guard.

The place hadn't changed that much in the past five years, well, maybe except for the fact that Jack was now a Brigadier General!

It took his friend long enough. Charlie had always known his best friend was destined to go far. If it weren't for his aversion to paperwork and his very acerbic tongue, Jack would have made General a lot sooner.

"_Kawalsky?_"

"Hey, buddy! Just dropped by to congratulate you on your promotion. It's been what? Five years?"

Jack sent him an incredulous look. "Well, _thanks_," Jack replied forcefully.

"See, the reason I didn't drop by any sooner was that I was under the impression that you destroyed the mirror. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but it don't look destroyed to me."

"We were going to. But someone higher up decided it would be stupid to get rid of something so valuable in case we need to use it someday."

Charlie shrugged, now grinning. "We thought the same."

Both men just stared at each other. Charlie was the first one to break the silence. "You look good, Jack. In fact, you look a lot younger than last time I saw you."

His friend grimaced. He pointed up to the ceiling. "Asgard."

"Oh?"

"I died," then Jack quickly added, "Then cloned."

"Whoah!" Charlie looked at him with amazement.

"You look good too. A bit older," Jack said smirking.

"What can I say, married life agrees with me."

"Yeah? Who was stupid enough to fall for your sad pick up lines?"

"The SGA's very own resident doc. Janet says 'hi'."

He saw a sad look pass over Jack. His demeanor suddenly changed from playful to serious.

"How's Sam?"

Just like Jack to go straight to the point.

"She passed away a few weeks ago."

A flicker of distress crossed Jack's features before he was able to stop himself from reacting. His friend was never good with emotions and that seemed true too in this particular universe.

"How?" Jack asked after a minute. He'd had to swallow back the torrent of emotions Charlie's news had brought.

"Lymphoma."

He saw Jack worrying his lip. "Jacob had it too, but he survived. He's a Tok'ra now."

"We never really got chummy with those guys. Sam didn't trust them."

Jack laughed at that. "Damned ironic. They could've saved her." Jack shook his head as if to clear it. "Is that why you're here? To tell me she's gone."

"Partly. She asked me and Janet to do something for her before she died."

Now that he was here, face to face with Jack, Charlie didn't know what to say. How did you tell someone that he was a father?

"Charlie..."

He had to get this over with. "She got pregnant, Jack."

Charlie saw understanding dawn on Jack's face. It confirmed what they all knew, but never really said. Everyone had just assumed that Samantha was already pregnant during the attack, her husband leaving her a very lasting memory of him.

He watched as Jack pulled out a chair and sat on it.

"It's funny," Jack said after a moment. "In the back of my mind I kept thinking that that's what she wanted. That as much as she needed to make love to her husband one last time, she was hoping for something else."

Charlie nodded. "The only thing that made her smile was that kid. She fought hard. She didn't want to leave her baby, but in the end she realized it was a losing battle and made sure Gracie at least had her dad."

"Gracie." Jack tried out his daughter's name.

"Grace Charlotte O'Neill," Charlie smiled ruefully. "The Charlotte part was apparently after me. I don't what the heck Sam was thinking..."

"You were there for her," Jack reminded him. "You were her friend when I should've been..." He couldn't continue.

"Hey! You can't blame yourself for this, understand?" He didn't want his friend crucifying himself with guilt for something he hadn't known about. "There was no way you could have known. You gotta focus on the now, what you can do for Gracie."

"Does she know about me?"

"A little. I think Sam showed her pictures of her Jack. I got the feeling she told Gracie some of the truth... what she can understand, anyway."

"Thats uh- That's good."

Charlie sighed seeing the turmoil this was causing Jack. This could royally screw things up for him, it would be difficult enough explaining where Grace came from, but that she was Jack's daughter?

"Look, Jack. I know this is gonna cause problems, Jan and I would be happy to keep Grace, but Sam wanted you to know and given the option. I had to do this."

"That's decent of you, Charlie."

"Wasn't up to me."

Jack gave him a questioning look.

Charlie pulled out a chair and sat down.

"After she died, her brother hired a lawyer and filed for Gracie's custody. I know damned well that's the last thing Sam wanted. She wanted Gracie with her real family. Either with us or with her father," Charlie said adamantly.

"Sam left a will, didn't she?"

"She did, but her brother is claiming that Jan and I are unsuitable guardians because of our work with the SGA. He's some hot shot politician with the post-interim government and he's got enough clout, Jack. I don't know what to do. Me and Jan figured that either way, we'll have to disappear-"

"I want her."

"Are you sure?"

"She's mine, Charlie. Grace belongs with me."

* * *

**I hope this chapter doesn't feel like it came out of left field. Some of you had already guessed this was coming from chapter one. Who else thought whilst watching 'POV' that here should've been 'more' between Samantha and our Jack? Or heck, more of a convo between Carter/Samantha? The whole time, I was like, "Come on! Give us more!" I totally wanted a Carter/O'Neill convo. **


	7. The Fairest Of Them All

**Chapter 7: The Fairest of them All**

He walked Charlie back to the mirror himself, agreeing to meet the other man in two hours time along with Grace.

He had very little time to contact General Hammond and explain to him the situation and what he wanted to do. That was the easy part.

The hard part was having to tell SG-1.

After his hour long phone call with Hammond in which the older general was far more sympathetic than Jack had anticipated and had given him the clearance to have Grace remain in their universe, he sought out Daniel.

He needed the archaeologist's advice on how to proceed, or rather, how to tell Carter. Danny was Sam's best friend and would know what to do.

"So, let me get this straight: You and their Sam...?"

"Yeah."

"And she got-"

"Yes, again."

"I see. Thats..."

"Bizarre? Breaks so many cosmic laws? What?"

"I was gonna say 'wow' but those fit too."

Daniel was still holding a piece of artifact from the Ancient ruins on P8Z-422. He was gesticulating with it which to Jack said much more than what he was actually saying. He'd just revealed some life changing, career destroying news and Daniel looked to be taking it very well, but he knew his friend and Daniel was as terrified as he was. This would change everything.

"What are you gonna do?"

What was he gonna do? He was going to get Grace and get her settled into his house as soon as possible. But he knew Daniel was asking much more than that.

What about childcare? How did one explain to everyone about the sudden appearance of a little girl that just happened to be his? What would he tell Carter?

"I'll figure it out."

"We."

"What?"

Daniel finally put down the slab of rock he was holding. "_We_ will figure it out."

"Look, Daniel-"

"We'll all help."

"You can't get Carter mix up in this. She's got a life now."

Daniel took off his glasses and begun to clean it. Standard delaying tactic when he was about deliver something Jack didn't want to hear. "Jack, don't you think she would want to be part of this. She is, technically-"

"No!" Jack shook his head and turned away from Daniel. "She's not Grace's... Grace's mother died. Samantha was her mother."

"I'm not saying that Sam could replace her-"

"I said no, Daniel. That little girl is going to know her real mother. I'm not gonna have her split between Carter and me, shuttling from one family to another. I'm definitely not gonna have her think of Pete as her stepfather."

"Is that why you don't want Sam to be part of this? Because you resent her for being with Pete?"

"Dammit, Daniel! You just don't get it. This has _nothing_ to do with Carter. Nothing. This was between me and Samantha. We made that kid together. Carter had nothing to do with it. They are nothing alike. Samantha was married to another Jack O'Neill, Carter doesn't even see me that way."

"Oh, _puhl_eese!" Daniel replied. "I can't believe you actually think that. We all know just how much she does see you that way."

"She's engaged to someone else, Daniel. That says plenty to me."

"Only because she thinks there's never gonna be anything between you two. If you just tell her how you feel-"

"It's too late, Daniel. She's happy with him. She's made her choice and I won't interfere with that. Grace doesn't change anything between me and Carter."

"What are you going to tell her then? What if she wants to be part of Grace's life?"

"I'll tell her the truth. I'll tell her that I don't want Grace to get even more confused about things."

Daniel thought about the little girl who was now caught up in the mess that Sam and Jack created. Grace had just lost her mother and now she was being forced to leave her very reality to live with a father she's only ever heard about, then deal with the alternate of her dead mother who was about to marry another man.

'Confused' was the least of the problems facing Grace.

Daniel joined Jack to meet Kawalsky and Grace at the mirror. They hadn't had much time after their little discussion to inform the rest of SG-1 and Jack decided to tell the rest of the team once he got Grace settled with Daniel at his house.

Grace would have to be checked at the infirmary first before being allowed off base. The two men had agreed that it would be wise to get the girl out of the mountain and quickly into something resembling 'normal'.

Daniel would stay with Grace whilst Jack returned to the mountain to tell SG-1 the news.

Carter, Jonas and Teal'c were still off world at the Ancient site and were expected to return the next day, but Jack was planning on recalling them briefly to tell them about his daughter.

Jack was understandably feeling apprehensive about meeting his little girl for the first time. This was a second chance for him at fatherhood and he was determined to not screw it up this time around.

He'd made so many mistakes with Charlie and he owed it to his late son and now his daughter to make things right.

The Quantum Mirror activated and they were able to see Kawalsky, Janet and a smaller figure whom they assumed was Grace.

The little girl was clutching Janet's side looking a little awed and scared by the whole thing. Jack grinned briefly at Janet who acknowledged him back with a smile before turning his gaze back to his little girl.

She was slightly tall for her age, long wavy blonde hair and the most startling blue eyes that Jack had ever seen. She was pure Sam and he couldn't help but fall in love with his daughter. There were only hints of himself on her, her slightly darker skin than Sam's, the curve of her lips.

Charlie touched the mirror forcing Jack to turn his attention from Grace. All three of them suddenly appeared on their side of the mirror.

"Dr. Jackson, it's nice to see you again." Charlie shook Daniel's hand, the two men exchanging brief pleasantries.

"Hey, Doc. How's it going?" Jack rocked back and forth on his heels his hands stuffed into his pockets. He glanced nervously down at Grace who was sneaking peeks at him.

Janet smiled and knelt down to the same level as her charge. "Gracie. I want you to meet General Jack O'Neill. Do you recognize him from the pictures your mommy used to show you?"

Grace nodded in the affirmative but didn't say anything.

Jack knelt down as well and extended his hand. "Nice to meet you, Gracie."

Grace shuffled her feet before finally looking shyly up at him. "Nice to meet you too, Daddy."

Jack felt a lump in his throat. He'd missed so much. This little girl had known him as her father all this time and he'd had no idea that she even existed. It was no ones fault, he couldn't even pin this one on himself, but he couldn't help but feel that he'd lost out on so many things.

He grasped her small hands in his and brought it up to his lips. She giggled a little at his actions and he couldn't help but grin back at her. He looked back up at Janet who looked about to cry.

He let go of Grace's hand and let her have a few moments with Janet.

The doc was speaking quietly to Grace and he assumed the two were saying goodbye. He saw his daughter nodding at whatever Janet was telling her and he couldn't help but feel bad that he was taking Grace away from the only family that she'd ever known.

She'd lost so much already and he was sure it wasn't right that she lose Janet and Charlie as well.

"Jack," Charlie interrupted his thoughts. "Jan and I can't stay long. We've brought as much of Gracie's stuff, but there's quite a few things you'll need to get. I've given Daniel a list..."

Janet came up to him and grasped his arm as if reading the doubts passing through his mind. "You'll do fine, Jack. I've put her medical file in her back pack. Just give it to your Frasier and they'll take care of everything. There's nothing to be worried about. She's perfectly healthy. She's a strong little girl, Jack, she'll get used to living with you pretty quickly."

"I know she will. Especially with the two of you helping out."

Charlie shot him a confused look.

Jack shoved his hands in his pockets and stared intently at his boots. "I may have asked Hammond for a huge, honkin' favor that I will certainly be repaying for the rest of my life..."

Janet looked at her husband then at Jack. "What?"

"Jack-" Charlie started, shaking his head.

"You're the only family Grace has ever known. She's lost so much already. I couldn't let the only two people left in from her previous life disappear into an unknown fate."

Janet forced him to look down at her and meet her gaze. "But what about Entropic Cascade Failure? According to Sam I'll start to suffer from it in a matter of days."

Jack gave her a sad look.

"You mean?"

He gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"How?" Charlie asked, feeling the loss despite having his Janet right there.

"Off world. She was a hit by a staff weapon treating one of our wounded."

Janet didn't know what to say.

"You saved that Airman's life, Doc. You have a chance to continue saving more of them."

* * *

**First of all, I want to apologize to you guys for the lull between chapters. For this story and Plausible Deniability. **

**I'm kinda stuck with a plot idea for PD, which my beta and I are currently hashing out the details. As for this fic, it's partially written, but will probably take a back seat once PD gets going again. **

**I hope you guys like Russia! ;-) And who else is loving Supportive!Daniel ? I sooo love the unlikely friendship between him and Jack. **

**errin: **I think you'll find that Jack isn't in the mood to explain much to Sam. He's basically separated the two Sams in his mind (Denial anyone?!), and isn't willing to share this part of his life with her. After all, she is engaged!

**Kahuna: **Man, I'm way to predictable. I guess we all know what we want to see in a story, and I'm basically writing that. Hmm. Maybe I should mix things up to make it more interesting? A pregnant Sam, perhaps? *veg*

**PatriciaS: **Sam's about to have a real rough time. Bad decisions, especially personal ones, have a nasty way of biting one in the butt.

**RobinBishop1231: **You've come to right place! I love me a babyfic.


End file.
